Dave Gunning and J.P. Cormier perform in Valcartier

Dave Gunning and J.P. Cormier made beautiful music together at the Valcartier municipal hall last week.

Dave Gunning is no stranger to Quebec City. Over the last four years, he has stopped by Quebec High School three times to work with the music concentration students, teaching about songwriting and guitar playing and discussing life as a professional musician.

Twice during those stopovers, he played house concerts. For the last two, months he has been playing his way across England and through Australia on a tour of music festivals. Upon his return to Canada, he met up with J.P. Cormier in Ontario, and the two began playing their way back to their shared hometown of Pictou, Nova Scotia. Cormier is an Acadian singer-songwriter who has worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry and has worked many years in Nashville.

On April 23, the two stopped in Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier to play an intimate concert for 50 people at the municipal hall. Gunning and Cormier’s musical relationship goes back 24 years, and it was obvious that these two had a special chemistry on stage. Their voices blended together and the harmonies rang out across the town hall. As singer-songwriters, they treated the crowd to some very personal songs, which they set up with short stories of how the lyrics or meaning came to them.

They weren’t short on humour, either. “The hero in this song ends up getting hung. If you like hangin’ songs, just be patient, ‘cause we have a couple of them,” said Gunning.

It was their first time playing in Valcartier and they said they loved the venue and vowed to come back in the future.
Note: Ed Sweeney is the Community Learning Centre co-ordinator at Quebec High School.